


A Series of Phone Calls and Moments

by MonPetitTresor



Series: Family Don't End With Blood [8]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: 66 Seals (Supernatural), Angels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Demon Blood Addiction, Hurt Dean, Hurt Sam, Hurt Tony, I hate this season, Lilith - Freeform, Neither does JARVIS, Pre-Iron Man 2, Ruby is a bitch, Supernatural Season 4, Tony doesn't trust angels, just so you know, or anyone who hurts Sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-14 13:57:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11209485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonPetitTresor/pseuds/MonPetitTresor
Summary: These are going to be a few chapters to get us through season 4. Phone calls, video chats, and brief moments that'll get us through the season.





	1. Sam Calls Tony

**Author's Note:**

> As the summary said, these are going to be a few chapters to get us through season 4, but there's going to be no promise on the size of each chapter. They'll consist of phone calls, video chats, and brief moments that'll get us through the season I hate the most. It starts at Dean rising and ends with Lucifer rising. Please don't be afraid to let me know what you think or what you'd like to see happen. I'm open to scene requests!

When Sam raced off to check on all the demon activity he’d learned about near Dean’s grave, the last thing that Tony expected to get was a phone call just one week later telling him “ _Dean’s back_!”

There as a brief moment where Tony was sure that he’d heard wrong. He _had_ to have! He froze in the middle of the repair he was making to his armor and he stared out at the space in front of him. “What? Say that again? I don’t think I heard you right.”

Sam let out a laugh that Tony hadn’t heard since this whole demon deal thing had started. “ _Dean’s alive. He’s… he’s back, Tone. He’s really back!_ ”

Holy shit. He had heard him right! But that was, well, at one time Tony would’ve said that it would be impossible, but his introduction to Sam and the life of hunting had taught him a lot of the ‘impossible’ was entirely possible. Shock gave way to joy; this was what they’d been working towards. The most important thing in the world to Sam. To have it happen was _amazing._ “Well son of a bitch.” A wide grin stretched over Tony’s lips. “Dammit, Sam, that’s… that’s _awesome_. How’d you do it?” They’d been working on this puzzle for weeks now. Sure, Tony had been caught up in other things, but he’d made time each day to try and help work on this. How on earth had the kid done it?

“ _I didn’t do a thing. I was in my motel room when him and Bobby just, they showed up. I thought it was a trick or something, but Bobby tested him. It’s really him, Tony! It’s really him!_ ” Then the kid laughed again. “ _And you’re not going to_ believe _how he got back._ ”

“How?” he asked eagerly. He and Sam had been doing their best to get Dean back and had come up with nothing. Neither had JARVIS. Tony had to know what the answer to this puzzle was that none of them had been able to come up with, and he had to know who had been the one to come up with it.

“ _Angels._ ”

Tony’s reply of “Bullshit” was instant and almost instinctive. He knew that Sam had faith, had teased him about it once or twice, but he never believed himself. Sure, demons were real, and other creatures, but angels? Sam really wanted him to believe that angels were real? “Angels aren’t real.”

Another laugh from Sam – damn, this kid was high on something, or drunk off his ass! He was never this amused when sober anymore – and Tony swore he could hear the head shake that went with it. “ _Dean said the same thing. He didn’t believe it until Castiel showed him his wings. Or, the shadow of them. Our psychic friend tried to call him down and seeing his ‘true form’ burnt out her eyes. Even Ruby says they’re real._ ”

That last one stalled Tony. The others, he might be able to explain away if he tried. But for a demon to openly admit that it was an angel? Who would know better? “She did?”

“ _Yeah. She skipped town pretty quick, too. She said they’re more the ‘smite first, ask questions later’ kind of beings when it comes to demons._ ”

“Imagine that.” Tony said dryly. On the inside, he was still stunned, not really all that sure what to make of this revelation. How the hell did someone reconcile themselves to the idea that angels were real? Tony looked down at his suit and shook his head.

If only than had been everything Sam had to tell him, though. That alone was enough to take time and booze to be able to process. But of course that wasn’t all Sam had to say. _Of course not_. Because nothing in the lives of the Winchesters was ever easy.

Tony listened in growing horror as Sam told him about the 66 seals that were like locks on a cage – a cage that held Lucifer. The actual devil. Who, it would see, was so bad his own family locked him away in the deepest pits of hell. And Lilith was the one who was out there trying to break them to set him free. Castiel brought Dean back so that he could help them fight against her and find a way to protect the seals. Why it had to be Dean, Sam didn’t say, and that struck Tony as weird, but he didn’t question that amidst everything else.

When they finally hung up – Sam said that Dean was coming and he had to go – Tony just sat there for a long moment and stared at the far wall as he processed everything he’d just heard.

Angels. Angels were _real_. They were real and were here to fight against the freaking _apocalypse_ , and they were using Dean Winchester as their weapon. Tony huffed. “Yeah, cause _that’s_ not strange at all.”

“What, Sir?”

The sound of JARVIS’s voice didn’t surprise Tony. It was too much a part of his life. Over half the time when he spoke out loud, even when he wasn’t anywhere near something connected to JARVIS, it was because he was used to speaking to the AI and having him respond. “This whole thing is strange, J.” Swirling his stool around, Tony slid himself over towards his other desk. “Let’s put aside the whole ‘angels are real’ stuff, because I’m not drunk enough for that conversation. Assuming that they are, why did they pick Dean Winchester to save from Hell? What is it about him that makes him special enough that they need to save him to come and stop all these seals from breaking?” Tony grabbed his coffee cup and took a sip, grimacing when it proved cold. Then he shrugged and took another drink. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled the guy was saved. He sold his soul to save his brother – he didn’t deserve to be down there. But… why him? An if he’s really the only person capable of doing this, why didn’t they just step in and help earlier, before he went to Hell? Why wait until they had to rescue him from there?”

“I believe we’re missing some key information to be able to determine that, Sir.”

“Yeah. The thing is, I get the feeling that Sam and Dean are missing that information, too.”

There were too many questions and no answers so far. Tony didn’t like not having answers. Especially about things that were going to directly affect Sam. How was he supposed to help the kid or even try to keep him safe somehow – a futile hope, he knew – if he didn’t even know what was going on?

Taking another drink of his cold coffee, Tony thought for a moment before he said “J, make a new folder on our lore records. Then start compiling everything you can find on angels. Every scrap of lore out there, I want it logged away so I can start looking through it tonight. If Sam’s going to be hanging around angels, I want to be prepared.”


	2. Tony Calls Sam

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one takes place not long after Sam first meets Cas - and Uriel

It took a couple weeks before Sam and Tony could manage more than a few texts here and there. The texts that Tony kept getting were perfectly normal, answering all of his questions and telling him things, but there was something about them that didn’t feel quite right. Something that had him deliberately setting aside some time that evening for a video call instead of a phone call and making sure to make use of JARVIS so he’d know when Sam was alone. What? So he was spying on the kid a bit – so what. It wasn’t like he was having JARVIS record conversations or anything like that. They weren’t _bugged_. But the phone Sam held was a new – discreet – Starkphone, and it carried a few special upgrades to it. One of which let JARVIS scan the room when necessary. He told Sam it was for scanning for bugs, and it was. It just also happened to allow him to make sure that Sam was alone when he wanted to.

He threw himself down onto his bed, suit and all, and toed his shoes off. God, it felt good to sit down! He _hated_ board meetings. They were always a giant pain in the ass. “Hey, J, is he alone?”

“Indeed, Sir. He’s been alone for the past twelve minutes.”

“Good. Open up a video chat and let’s give him a call.”

As Tony stretched himself out on his bed and folded his hands behind his head, getting comfortable, he waited for the screen to pop up in front of him. The instant it did, he grinned. “There’s my puppy! How’s everything in the land of make believe?”

The image in front of him was a familiar one. Sam was in yet another in a string of crappy motel rooms. Seriously, didn’t this kid ever use the card Tony gave him? Oh, wait, of course he didn’t, because why would he do anything to make his life _easier_? There’d only ever been two charges on there since Tony had given him the damn thing! But, crappy room aside, Sam looked – okay. He was sitting on his bed as well and the angle of the scree suggested he had his laptop set up on something, likely his bag. He was reclining against his pillows as well and, though he looked really tired, he smiled at the sight of Tony, something that never failed to make the older man feel good. “You’re starting to like that nickname too much, Tone.”

“You want me to start calling you pipsqueak more?” Tony shot back. He knew that that nickname tended to fluster Sam sometimes, and he pretend to not like it though they both knew he secretly did. It was why Tony usually pulled it out when he was worried about the kid, or he was trying to be serious.

Sam’s nose wrinkled and he shot Tony a glare that didn’t diminish the puppy-dog look _at all_. “You could try calling me Sam.” He said, with the air of someone who knew their argument was futile.

Snorting, Tony didn’t even bother answering that. They both knew he wasn’t going to give up the nicknames. Just like they both knew ‘puppy’ didn’t bother him all that much. Sam knew Tony well enough to take the term as the endearment it was meant as. “You wanna keep debating nicknames, or you wanna answer my question? Don’t think I didn’t notice you sidestepping it. You’ve got years to go before you can get as good as me at hiding things, my tiny little apprentice. Now, how are things out there in the hunting world? How are you liking your angel buddies?”

A flicker of something was there and gone again on Sam’s face. “They’re… not what I thought they’d be.”

Well now, that wasn’t good. That wasn’t good at all. The relaxing atmosphere of their conversation vanished. “What happened?” Tony didn’t move but he focused his attention on the image in front of him. That had been pain on Sam’s face; pain that had Tony bracing and ready for trouble. What had _angels_ done to him?

Sam avoided looking at the screen. His way of trying to distance himself from this, Tony knew. It made the older man want to wince. This was something he was going to have to tread carefully through. Thankfully, he at least didn’t have to push Sam to answer. They’d long ago established one another as a sort of safe space to vent to, no matter the topic. Sam just took a bit to put his thoughts together before he finally voiced them. “They’re not… they’re, different. I expected them to be, I don’t know. Better?” He hesitated over that word, unsure of it, and then sighed. Tension seeped into his frame. “They were going to raze an entire town just to potentially stop a seal from breaking, Tony. They didn’t… they didn’t even care about the human lives involved. They would’ve killed them all.”

That wasn’t what Tony had been expecting. Weren’t these guys supposed to be the good guys? “So, definitely not the kind watchers on high, then. Do they wear robes? Please tell me they wear robes.”

That got a twitch of the lips out of Sam. Not much, but better than nothing. “No, sorry.”

There was something else in the shadows of Sam’s face that set Tony’s worries running sky high. This was more than just finding out angels weren’t cute and cuddly. No, this was something a whole lot more personal. Something that had _hurt_. Tony tilted his head and stared for a long minute as he openly studied Sam’s face. He watched the kid squirm a little underneath his stare. When he could see Sam was close to breaking, to demanding ‘what the hell’, that was when Tony quietly asked “What’d they do to you?”

“What?” Sam immediately tried to protest, to cover it up. “Tony, what are you…?”

Tony cut him off. “No bullshit, Sam.”

It was a phrase they used on each other often when they felt something was serious and they weren’t going to put up with the walls the other one put up. It was a phrase that meant it was time to cut the crap and be honest. He watched as Sam visibly deflated just from hearing it. The pain came back, stronger, and Sam dropped his head down low enough that his stupidly long hair came down to cover his face. After a few long moments, he finally spoke, though it was quiet. “I was so excited to meet them. I mean, angels, real _angels_. I’ve always had faith, you know?”

“Yeah.” He’d teased Sam about it plenty of times before. Now, he was kind of regretting that.

“I, I got so excited to meet Cas. I made an idiot of myself, stammering and such, and he… he wouldn’t even shake my hand. He wouldn’t even look at me.” A visible shiver shook Sam’s body. His voice got so quiet Tony had a hard time hearing him. “The boy with the demon blood. That’s what he called me. It… it’s all they see. I mean, not that I can blame them.”

Temper snapped, hot and bright through Tony. “Like hell you can’t!” Who did they think they were, judging him like that?

“Tony, I…” Pausing, Sam took a deep breath and he looked up, eyes dark and so fucking lost. “You don’t know. I’ve… to get Dean home, to, to get ready to stop Lilith…”

It was tempting to let Sam continue to stammer on like that. To make him sweat for a second and see if maybe he’d actually finally admit to some things. In the end, he couldn’t do it. Not with Sam looking the way he did. “If you’re trying to tell me that you’ve drank more of the stuff, I already figured that out.” Tony told him bluntly. He watched Sam jerk back like he’d been slapped. The fact was, Tony had known _something_ was up since the last time Sam had visited. JARVIS always scanned people to make sure they were human ever since Sam had taught him about the supernatural. Sam always registered as a bit different, and once they’d found out about the demon blood in him, Tony had chalked it up to that. But on his last visit the scans had showed that ‘difference’ to be, more. A lot more. Tony hadn’t figured out until just now that Sam was taking it _willingly_ , but he’d figured he was getting more somehow.

The urge to start shouting hit hard and fast. What the hell was he _thinking_? _Drinking demon blood_? Bad enough that it’d been fed to him as a baby! He actually was going out and willingly putting that shit in his system? The thought was infuriating. Tony had to clench his eyes shut tight and practice breathing for a few to keep himself from ripping the kid a new one. The reactor ached in his chest as his heart pounded. Only when he was sure he was a little more under control did Tony open his eyes.

When he did, he wanted to groan. The way that Sam looked now, like a puppy someone had kicked one too many times, it stole the wind right out of Tony’s sails. How on earth was he supposed to shout when Sam already looked like he was expecting it and was just going to sit there and take it? Besides, it sounded like the angels were doing a good enough job of making him feel like shit. They sure didn’t need Tony’s help. Instead of all the rants he wanted to give, Tony said just one word. “Why?”

Sam’s words almost tripped over each other in his hurry to explain. “It makes me stronger, Tony. My powers are a lot stronger. I can exorcise demons from the host and actually leave the host _alive_. If I train it up enough, I’ll be able to use it to take out Lilith. _Lilith_ , Tone!”

“But is this really the way you wanna do it?” There was no way that drinking demon blood was anything that could be considered ‘good’ for him. The things it had to be doing to his body – Tony wanted to shudder even thinking on it.

A hint of the hardness that Tony had seen off and on lately entered Sam’s eyes. He was bracing for a fight, ready to snap before Tony could snap at him. “It’s the only way to stop her.”

“So you’re willing to potentially sacrifice parts of yourself to take her out… for, what? Revenge?”

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to stop her. Why doesn’t anyone understand this? Maybe Dean’s right – maybe this is making me into something that other hunters might want to hunt, but who cares? She’s the freaking _first demon_ , Tony, and she’s out there trying to break seals to set Lucifer free! You’re damn right I’m willing to sacrifice parts of myself. I’ll sacrifice whatever it takes.”

There was so much of that Tony could’ve fought against. Not the least of which was that _he_ wasn’t willing to sacrifice any parts of his little brother no matter what it would save in the end. But he was selfish like that and he could admit it. The only thing that kept those words locked behind his teeth was the look on Sam’s face. To most other people it probably wouldn’t be noticeable – to Tony, he recognized that look instantly because he’d seen it in the mirror far too many times. The self-loathing, the sense that you were worth only what you could provide, what you could do. The helpless sense of impotence when everything you did just wasn’t enough.

Yeah, this thing with the demon blood and Lilith, it was about revenge. There was no denying that. Sam wanted revenge on the being that had dragged his brother down to Hell. Oh sure, he was doing this to try and stop seals breaking, too, and to take out what sounded like one of the baddest demons, but they both knew this was a revenge mission. But this was also something else, something that Tony understood, and hated that he understood. This was Sam thinking that he was worth nothing more than this. That what happened to him in the end was meaningless so long as everyone else was saved. Underneath the anger and rage and this whole scary hunter façade that he’d built up since Dean’s deal, there still lived the terrified kid who looked up to the big brother who had been like a father to him, and who felt like he failed him. There was a kid who felt like he was dirty and unclean already, so what did a little more matter if it got the job done?

That little comment he’d slipped n about Dean, about him being something that hunters would hunt, probably hadn’t helped any of that.

For a moment Tony closed his eyes and wished that he was there to wring the kid’s neck and then give him a hell of a hug. He wanted to tell him how stupid he was and then remind him just how damn _amazing_ he was. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t be there. Sighing, Tony shook his head. “Shit, pipsqueak.” When he opened his eyes again, he made sure to meet Sam’s through the camera, trying to make it clear he was looking right at him without flinching away. “I can’t… I can’t approve of this. You know that. I can’t pretend to be happy about it either. You’re too damn important to me for me to ever be okay with you just throwing away your life for something like this. But…” and this was the single hardest thing that Tony could remember doing, something he had to fight to make leave his lips because it felt wrong to do anything that might make Sam think he was okay with this, “…it’s your life, and you’re going to do what you want no matter what I say. I may not like it, but you’re old enough to make your own choices. I’ve got your back.”

Sam looked – well, he looked stunned. Like that was the last thing he’d expected. “Really?”

Sighing, Tony nodded. “Yeah. Though I reserve the right to say I told you so if it all blows up in our faces.”

Some of that tension faded away and Sam actually smiled at him a little. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”


	3. Sam and JARVIS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is set after 4x18, where they discover Chuck Shurley and the Supernatural books. This is also pretty close to Iron Man 2 now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to take a moment to say that I know a lot of you are asking for Dean and Tony to meet, or talking about how they’re going to get along and such, and I really agree with you that that’s going to be an interesting dynamic. But for those of you that aren’t familiar with my writing, I’m a pretty Sam-centric writer, which means that he’s going to be the focus of this, him and Tony. Yes, Dean will definitely be around, and when I get to the big main story around Purgatory, there will be interactions between Dean and Tony, and Dean and the Avengers, but there’s also the likelihood that it’s going to come off as mean and angry at first, because I think that there’s a lot Dean doesn’t see and a lot he needs his eyes opened to. Plus, I highly doubt he's going to like the idea of Sam claiming anyone else as 'brother'
> 
> It’s not me Dean-hating. I don’t hate Dean. But I also don’t think that the relationship between the brothers is healthy, and to be honest, I don’t like season 4-5 Dean even though I know he has good reasons for a lot of his asshole attitude. Just keep in mind, some of the bad you see in him, some of the times my writing makes him seem like a giant dick maybe, it’s going to help in a great personal growth later, and my end game will NEVER be to break the boys apart.

It’d been a long couple days. Sam sighed as he nursed his beer and tried to calm his racing mind.

The younger Winchester sat in the back of a bar and watched his brother playing pool, trying to earn them a bit of money at the same time as attempting to forget about the events of the past couple days, and there was nothing more that Sam wanted to do than go join him. The only thing was, he knew his presence wouldn’t do any good. He knew that going over there would only help bring back some of the tension that Dean had managed to get rid of so far. Pretty sad when this was what their life had come to.

It was just, there’d been a tension between them since Dean came back from Hell. It was understandable, of course. Dean had been in literal _Hell_. He was going to be different. He just… he didn’t seem to accept that Sam was going to be different, too. Not that Sam was trying to compare their experiences, though. No. He knew a whole lot better than to do that. What he went through was nothing compared to what Dean had gone through. And what Sam was doing to himself, that was his own choice, and he knew how badly he was screwing it up. Even the damn prophet they’d met just a couple days ago knew how badly Sam was screwing himself up. It was just – it was worth it if it stopped Lilith.

The tension between them had only gotten worse after recent events. After everything with Anna, and Alastair, and then Zachariah throwing them into that alternate reality, and now _Chuck_.

Thoughts of the prophet intruded and Sam tried not to groan. He took another long drink of his beer and watched Dean grin at the guys he was playing with, acting up the drunk part of things. Neither one of them had been all that pleased to find out that there was a prophet of the Lord out there _writing books about them_. Books that Castiel said would one day become the ‘Winchester Gospels’. Who cared if they’d be some sort of weird gospel for people some day? That was their lives! People didn’t need to read that!

Chuck had been startlingly frank about things once he’d realized what was going on, even if he was a nervous wreck most of the time. The only thing that had kept Sam from yelling at him more was that he knew he owed the man. He owed him a lot. Considering Chuck had made sure to keep a few things back from his books, Sam really owed him. Because Chuck kept out not just that Sam was drinking demon blood – he said it would make him look ‘unsympathetic’ – he also kept out Tony. Mainly, he said, because “The last thing I needed was some lawyers seeing a character that even resembled Tony Stark coming after me. He won’t appear in the books, Sam, I promise.”

Speaking of Tony, he was going to get an absolute kick out of reading those books. He was also going to give Sam a ton of shit over it.

The idea of not telling him about them never even crossed his mind.

One of the guys with Dean had shifted around into an aggressive posture that had Sam watching closely for a moment. When the guy backed down and Dean grinned, Sam relaxed. He pulled his phone from his pocket and sent off a text to Tony.

_Ever heard of the author Carver Edlund? – SW_

He had to wait a few minutes – he finished his beer and was brought another by the waitress – before a reply finally came in.

_No. Should I? – Big T_

_Much as I’m going to regret this, you should check out his series ‘Supernatural’ – SW_

_Sometimes prophets of the Lord apparently hide their prophecies in trashy novels – SW_

This time he was expecting it to take a while before he got any sort of response. He knew Tony well enough to know the man would be sitting there looking the books up on his phone. As Sam waited, he decided to send off a message to JARVIS as well. The AI would be able to pull a lot of hunting information from those books, and he’d probably take a bit of the information about Sam and add it to the personal file he kept. JARVIS had files on everyone that came into any sort of contact with Tony.

_Hey J, you might want to check out the series Supernatural by Carver Edlund and add the information to your files – SW_

_Sir already has me downloading them – Little J_

Go figure. Sam smiled and went out of his texts. He ran his thumb over the screen of his phone, which was a whole lot nicer than he should’ve been capable of. Tony hadn’t been as discreet in his phone this last time around. It was clearly a Starkphone. When Dean had seen it, he’d made quite a few sarcastic remarks about wasting money on something so fancy instead of their usual burner phones. Sam liked it, though. He knew giving gifts was the easiest way for Tony to show that he cared, and Sam’s life didn’t make it easy for Tony to give him gifts, so things like phones and ammo, or helping with research, those were the ways Tony did it.

The phone buzzed in his hand and startled him. When he looked at the screen he saw he had message from both his brother and JARVIS.

_I’m going to have so much fun with this – Big T_

_I believe you have made Sir’s evening. Thank you – Little J_

The first text made him laugh, the second one made him curious. If JARVIS had left off the ‘thank you’, Sam might not have wondered about it. The AI was usually full of sarcasm and dry humor. But adding on the ‘thank you’ at the end was just enough to make Sam wonder. It made it sound more real and less amused. Or maybe Sam was just getting paranoid. He and Tony hadn’t been talking as much lately and when they did, it was often short and a bit stilted, like there was something… _off_. He couldn’t help but wonder that maybe Tony hadn’t quite been telling the truth when he told Sam that he had his back. Maybe the demon blood bothered him more than he was admitting to.

After a quick debate, and another look to check that his brother was still playing, Sam thumbed in the number that would take him directly to JARVIS and then lifted the phone to his ear. It didn’t take long for him to answer. “ _Good evening, young sir. Is everything all right?_ ”

Whoever said that JARVIS didn’t have emotions was an idiot. Sam could hear the concern coming over the line and it made him smile, made him soften in a way that was so rare anymore. “Hey, J. I’m, well… we’re as good as can be expected here. I was actually calling to make sure that everything was all right over there.” There was no point in beating around the bush when talking with JARVIS. Straightforward was the best way to go. Sam liked that about his conversations with him.

There was a short pause, almost unnoticeable, before JARVIS said “ _We’re as well as can be expected here, too, young sir._ ”

Yeah, like that didn’t make his worry creep up even more. Sam stared off at Dean and carefully contemplated his next words. He wasn’t going to ask JARVIS to betray anything if there really was something going on with Tony. He wouldn’t do that to him. And Sam was almost sure that there was _something_ going on. “Maybe I should take a little break from things and come up and visit, just for a weekend.”

This time the pause was a little longer than before. When JARVIS spoke again, there was an edge of something at the start of his words that Sam would’ve called a sigh on anyone else. “ _Much as Sir would enjoy that, I don’t believe it wise right now, young Sir. At the moment we are almost positive we have a spy in our midst. If she’s anything like we think she might be, the last thing that Sir would want is to risk you and your secrets being exposed to her._ ”

 _Dammit._ Tony could hide things over the phone, but he wouldn’t have been able to hide face to face. If he couldn’t go out there, he wasn’t going to be able to confront him. Sam sighed and wiped a hand over his face. “J, can you just tell me… is he okay? I’m not, I won’t try and push it, I won’t beg for details. I just need to know that he’s okay.”

There was only a brief hesitation before JARVIS answered. “ _He is in no more danger than usual, young Sir.”_

That wasn’t an answer. Sam closed his eyes and sighed. “If whatever’s going on gets worse, will you call me? Please?”

“ _Of course. And might I add, young Sir, that his current actions are in no way a slight against your own. As I believe he would say, this is nothing that you have done._ ”

There was such honesty in that answer Sam couldn’t do anything but believe him. It didn’t really make him feel better, though. Even when he and JARVIS finally hung up, Sam still sat there, wondering and worrying, wishing that things were just a bit different. That he could go out there and help Tony out somehow with whatever it was that he was going on. Whatever he was keeping from Sam, likely in some sort of effort to protect him. But Tony was shutting him out, and Sam couldn’t fight against it. Especially not when his other brother was here and needed his help, potentially even more. He was just going to have to keep going like he was and hope that he wasn’t making the wrong choice.


	4. Chapter 4

The next few weeks weren't the best. Not for Sam and not for Tony. Later, they'd both look back and regret so much that happened during that time, and so much that _didn’t_ happen. Tony would regret not being there for Sam, not seeing what was happening as the whole world abandoned him and everything turned against him. Sam would regret not being there to see what was going on, not helping Tony heal the way his brother had helped him countless times.

It wasn’t until it was all over and everything was said and done, as both their worlds crashed and imploded in two very different ways, that it all finally came to a head.

Everything came crashing down for Tony, first. All the secrets he’d been keeping, everything that had been going on, all of it ended when Sam caught sight of a few news stories on his laptop.

Sam was laying back on his bed, laptop in his lap, cruising through websites to try and distract himself from everything that had been happening. His fight with Dean, his trip into the panic room, the forced detox that had almost killed him. _‘You walk out that door, don’t you ever come back!’_ Sam cringed as those words echoed in his head. He had to pause in his searching to curl and uncurl his hands a few times so that he could try to erase the feel of beating his own brother. _Just a little longer,_ he reminded himself. Just a little longer until Ruby got back and then it’d be time to move on, time to go do what needed to be done.

He didn’t want to think about any of that other stuff. He didn’t want to think of the way Dean had looked when he called Sam a monster.

He didn’t want to think about how he was right.

All of this, what Sam had done, it’d changed him. It’d changed him so much. He wasn’t blind to that. But if it was going to stop Lilith and keep Lucifer from rising, what did it matter? What was one life lost in comparison to the world?

He let out a shaky breath and shook his head again. No, he wasn’t supposed to be thinking about that!

What he ended up thinking about wasn’t much better. As he sifted through the recent news – a habit of his every once in a while, just to amuse himself with what kind of stories were out there about Tony – what he found was terrifying.

He saw the news coverage over the race in Monaco where Tony was attacked by someone wielding electric whips. He saw the coverage on the fight between Jim and Tony, and it made him seethe, hands clenching on the bedding as he watched the videos from Tony’s birthday bash that were circulating YouTube. The clips from the Expo and the story about all that – that was the worst. By the time Sam finally made his shaking hands grab his phone and dial a number he’d been deliberately avoiding, he was terrified of what he was going to find.

“ _Hey there, little bro! Finally decide to return my calls, huh?_ ”

The _life_ that Sam heard in Tony’s voice was so bright, so vibrant, and he hadn’t noticed until just now that it’d been something that was missing lately. That realization only made him feel worse. How much had he not noticed? How much had he missed out on because he’d been too caught up in his own shit? He’d see the missed calls from Tony from while Sam was – _locked up, shut away, pain, oh God it hurts please Dean let me out make it stop makeitstoplease! –_ indisposed. He hadn’t bothered returning any of them. But this… this had been enough to make him call. This worry. Only, it would seem he’d had nothing to worry about. “You’re okay.”

“ _Yeah, pipsqueak, I’m okay_.” A gentle note entered Tony’s voice. _“I know, I know, I’ve got a hell of a lot of explaining to do. Trust me, you’re not the only one who really wants an explanation. I’ve already had to sit down and talk to Rhodey and Pepper both and apologize for pushing them away these past few months, and I owe you one for that, too. But when you know you’re dying it sort of makes more sense to piss people off and chase them away than keep them close, you know?”_

Years of practice let Sam take that bit of Tony babble and sift through it to focus on the most important part. Namely, the ‘when you know you’re dying’ part of things. Sam had called because he’d wanted to check in on Tony after all those clips. He hadn’t…he hadn’t realized… “You were dying?”

He swore he could _hear_ Tony wince. “ _Oh. Guess you, uh, didn’t listen to my messages, then_.”

“What the hell is going on, Tony?”

Sam listened with growing horror as Tony told him all about the pallidum poisoning. He listened to Tony talk about trying to find a way to save himself, and coming up with nothing. He listened as Tony told him about the changes he’d made, how he’d made Pepper CEO and how he’d hired this ‘Natalie Rushman’ as his new personal assistant who ended up being Natasha Romanov, an agent of SHIELD, and as he explained how he’d ended up able to create some new element that saved his life. Sam listened to all of it and felt not just horrified, but angry. Angry at Tony for keeping this from him. Angry with himself for not seeing any of it.

How could he not have seen? How could he not have realized that there was so much going on in Tony’s life?

“ _Sam? You still there?_ ”

“You were dying.” Sam repeated, the words more a statement than a question this time. “You were dying. For _months_. And you didn’t tell me until after you’d found a way to save yourself?”

“ _I didn’t want you to worry_.” Tony sounded just a bit sheepish, and a bit tired, like he’d had this conversation plenty of times already. Likely he had. _“It sounds stupid now, but at the time I mostly just didn’t want anyone there to watch it if I couldn’t stop it.”_

The anger that was never very far from the surface these days went surging through Sam’s veins. His hand gripped so tight to the phone it actually shook a little. “So you were just going to, what? Wait until you died and have JARVIS give me some made up story about how you died?” Sam snapped at him. “Did you seriously think that would be easier? That I’d be happier knowing that I missed the last few months with you, no matter what it was that killed you?”

“ _No, Sam, that wasn’t…_ ”

“What? Did you think I’d just grieve a little and then move on?” The anger was growing. If Sam were more clearheaded, he would’ve recognized the fear and grief for what they were. He would’ve realized that this wasn’t just anger at Tony – it was anger at everyone and everything, and it was being fueled by the demon blood inside of him, twisting him up more and more. “You think I'd be any better losing you than I was Dean? You might not have raised me like he did but you've saved my ass so many times, you’ve cared about me, and you’ve been there when everyone else bailed on me. You’re just as important to me, you asshole. Nothing would’ve made this okay.”

The silence on the other end of the line was deafening. He heard as Tony shifted, as he cleared his throat. When he spoke again, he sounded more hoarse than before, and broken open in a way that didn’t usually happen without copious amounts of alcohol. “ _I’m sorry, Sam. I..._ ” There was a pause and another sigh. “ _I was selfish. I couldn’t handle you being there. Not when I felt so sure I was going to die. I couldn’t have you watch me do that._ ”

“That must be a big brother trait. Who needs a little brother to help them out, right? You get to see us at our lowest but God forbid we get to help you with yours.” Why did no one ever want to let him there to help them? Did they seriously think that, what, Sam wasn’t going to be able to handle it? They wanted to know everything about him and got pissed if he kept secrets yet it was no big deal for them to keep anything to themselves. Well, he was done. He was _done_. “You know what? Fine. You wanted to push me away? You’ve got your wish.”

“ _Sam, no_!”

Sam gathered up his resolve and used it to harden himself against the agony he heard in Tony’s voice. “Forget it. You deal with your problems, I’ll deal with mine. I'll do this without any of you. I don't need you _or_ him. Maybe if I make it out of this alive, I’ll give you the same courtesy calls you gave me.”

Without waiting for Tony to reply, Sam ended the call. Then he turned the phone off.

As he stared down at his laptop, the images of his brother still on display there, he heard the sound of an engine outside and felt Ruby’s presence coming towards him. He was feeling her so much easier now.

With the open laptop still on the bed behind him, Sam walked out of the motel room, leaving every last piece of connection to his family behind. It was time go get this done. Time to stop Lilith. Nothing else mattered – he couldn’t allow anything else to matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about that! Sam on demon blood is a bit of a dick :/
> 
> One more chapter and then we're on to the Apocalypse story, which will have longer and better chapters, I believe. Not snippets, but full fledged chapters :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a bit of episode recap in here, folks, so bear with me. Thanks so much to @theriverscribe for all your help getting me onto the path I'm on here. :)

There had never been a time that Tony had gotten into the suit so fast. Sam’s words from their phone call kept ringing over and over in his head. There was something so broken in them, so dangerous, so freaking _final_ , and it left a sour taste in his mouth and a sick feeling in his stomach. ‘ _You deal with your problems, I’ll deal with mine. I'll do this without any of you. I don't need you or him. Maybe if I make it out of this alive, I’ll give you the same courtesy calls you gave me._ ’ That – that wasn’t the Sam that Tony knew. The Sam he knew would’ve been hurt and angry because of what Tony had done, but he wouldn’t have pulled away like this. It was just another in a million little ways that Sam had changed this past year.

But more than all that, more than Sam pulling away or how the demon blood had changed him, what worried Tony the most was one part of all that _– Maybe if I make it out of this alive._

Sam was going somewhere, or going up against something, and he was likely doing it alone if his ‘ _I don’t need you or him’_ was anything to go by, and he was apparently expecting there to be a chance he might not survive doing it. Tony had sat back one too many times since he’d met Sam and had to listen to the aftermath of what he went through. Well, he wasn’t going to do that this time. He was going to find that kid, help keep his ass alive through whatever was going on, and then they were going to have words and figure this thing out between them, because like _hell_ if he was going to lose his little brother over this. He hadn’t fought to save his own ass just to come back and lose the kid.

“JARVIS, activate the GPS in Sam’s phone. Let’s find him – now.”

By the time Tony was up in the air, JARVIS had a location for him. “ _Ilchester, Maryland. A convent by the name of St. Mary’s, Sir_.”

“Interesting choice, given his current companion.” Tony said dryly.

“ _Indeed. Estimated flight time, thirty-two minutes._ ”

“Let’s see if we can cut that down.”

* * *

It was getting harder and harder to fight the doubts in the back of his head. To ignore that little voice in there telling him that there was something wrong with this. With _him_. Sam stared down at the ground and tried to get those voices to be quiet but they wouldn’t go away. He could hear Dean telling him how wrong this was, how far from human it made him, how the angels had told him to stop Sam or they would. He could hear the screams of the woman as she begged him to let her go, to not do this. And he could hear Tony, telling him that he didn’t approve of this, but he’d support him, albeit reluctantly. So many people, so many voices, all of them telling him how wrong this was.

Behind him, Ruby called out “Sam, it’s time. Are we doing this or not?”

“Give me a minute to think!” He called back.

“Sam…”

“Give me a damn minute, Ruby!”

He heard her sigh noisily. “Better think fast.” She grumbled.

As she moved away, he pulled the cell phone from his pocket and stared at it for a moment, seeing all the missed calls he knew would be there once it was back on. All the messages. The multiple voicemails from Tony, he ignored those for a moment, staring instead at the newest one, the one he hadn’t expected to see. The one from Dean. It took a lot of courage to press the button to play it.

“ _First unheard message:_

_Listen to me, you bloodsucking freak. Dad always said I'd either have to save you or kill you. Well, I'm giving you fair warning. I'm done trying to save you. You're a monster, Sam -- a vampire. You're not you anymore. And there's no going back.”_

Grief hit Sam like a tidal wave. He closed his eyes against the pain of it and tried not to throw up. It was done. He’d officially lost his brother over this. What point was there in trying to turn back anymore? What point was there in trying to stop? He’d committed to this earlier and it had cost him Dean. Turning back now, it’d serve no purpose. He’d still be without Dean and Lilith would still be free. At least if he did this, he wouldn’t have lost his brother for nothing.

Resolve straightened his spine. It was time to get back to work.

* * *

Sam refused to let himself feel the nausea or the guilt as he made his way into the sanctuary. The body of that poor woman was left behind and Sam couldn’t let himself think about her. He couldn’t. Not if he wanted to finish this. There couldn’t be any holding back now. Not when he stepped inside and caught sight of Lilith. Power was coursing through Sam’s veins and he let it fly as he flung out a hand, sending Lilith soaring across the room and into the altar.

Focused on her, he never saw his brother enter the hall behind him. Never saw Ruby’s smirk as she used her powers and slammed the door shut.

All his focus was on Lilith. Pushing his powers out, he forced her back against the altar and took a few steps forward. The sound of her heartbeat filled his ears. “I’ve been waiting for this for a _very_ long time.” Today, finally, he’s going to stop her, stop her from breaking anymore seals, and he’s going to get his revenge on the demon that took his brother from him.”

The first demon smirked up at him. “Then give me your best shot.”

There was a brief moment where Sam said a thankful prayer that she was in the body of a woman this time and not a child. Then he reached out his hand and threw all the power that he could at her. White light grew inside her chest, her face, and she cried out in pain.

As he pushed it at her, something broke through his concentration. The sound of a voice that Sam would recognize just about anywhere. He froze, his concentration breaking as he turned instinctively to the sound he’d always listened to, the one that had always been there for him. “Sam!” The voice got louder. Even as Ruby started to scream beside him, he heard it again. “Sam! _Sam_!”

“Dean?” Was that really him? How? _Why_?

“What’re you waiting for?” Ruby snapped at Sam. “Now, Sam! _Now_!”

But it was the sound of laughter that broke through it all. As Ruby and Dean both screamed at him, Lilith laughed, and Sam found himself turning towards her. She was _laughing_. Sitting there pinned against the altar, she was looking up at him and _laughing_. “Look at you, Sammy! You turned yourself into a freak. A monster. And now you're not gonna bite? I'm sorry, but that is honestly adorable.”

Anger filled Sam. It pushed away everything – the sound of Ruby, the sound of his brother, _everything_ – until nothing else in the world existed except her. The sound of her heartbeat grew in his ears, louder and louder, and he lifted his hand once more and concentrated his powers.

* * *

_Please, please, don’t let me be too late. Whatever’s going on, don’t let me be too late!_

Tony flew straight for the church, the signal from Sam’s phone leading him right to him. _“Sir, I’m sensing the presence of multiple beings ahead. The young sir, a human male, and two females._ ”

“What are they, J?” Tony twisted his suit and headed towards the entrance of the building. Screw just walking in – there wasn’t time. Sam was in there, and he wasn’t alone. Two of the things in there weren’t human, and that didn’t bode well.

 _“Scans would indicate demons, Sir. You should proceed with caution._ ”

“Now where’s the fun in that?”

He raised a hand and blasted away the doors in front of him. Then he flew right through. It took him inside and down a long hallway. As he curved, twisting himself around the corner, he saw a set of closed doors ahead, and a male standing there. One look and Tony knew who it was. He’d seen Sam’s pictures of the man. That was Dean Winchester. And he was using a candelabra to try and break down a set of doors in front of him, only he’d frozen at the sound of Tony’s entrance, the candelabra held amusingly up in a threatening pose in his hands, his eyes hard as they glared back at him only to turn to open shock as Iron Man landed just a few feet away from him.

Tony didn’t bother wasting time. They could get into the whole explanations thing later. For the moment, Sam was what was important, and the silence coming from the other side of the door wasn’t that reassuring. Nor was the fact that JARVIS was in his ear telling him _“One of the demons is dead, Sir. But I’m sensing a strange sort of power surge just ahead._ ”

“Move.” Tony said sharply. He was pleased when Dean did it instead of arguing. Lifting a hand, he built up a strong blast and aimed it right for the handles, letting it fly in a blow that sent the doors flying wide open.

A look at the room told him what had happened. The dead woman by the altar, Sam on the ground, a dark haired woman in front of him. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. What he didn’t understand, and what had him instantly worried, was the strange way the blood was pooling on the ground. “Oh, that can’t be good. JARVIS, what is that?”

“ _I’m unsure, Sir. However, the energy I’m sensing definitely seems to be coming from there._ ”

The woman by Sam rose and turned to look at Dean. “You’re too late.” She said smugly.

Dean was almost radiating fury as he marched up to her. “I don’t care.” He drew a knife and Tony watched with shock as Sam rose up and grabbed her, holding her in place so that Dean could stab her. Not _just_ stab her, though. No. The man shoved that knife in and held it there, glaring right into her eyes, making damn sure she knew exactly who was killing her. Tony shivered inside as he watched the orange light crackle and glow in her before Dean yanked the knife out and she slumped down to the ground, nothing more than a human now.

The look on Sam’s face as he looked up at his brother, it was one Tony was going to remember for a long time. “I’m sorry.” Sam said brokenly.

They were broken from their moment by a sudden bright, blinding light in the middle of the floor, and the electronics in Tony’s suit started to crackle. Oh, dammit. Dammit! Stupid supernatural crap and its need to mess with his babies. “All right, boys, I think it’s time to get out of here.”

As if for the first time Sam seemed to notice Tony. His eyes went wide and he actually gaped a little as Tony strode toward the two of them. They were going to have to move fast if they wanted to get out of here before this growing white light took out his suit entirely. “Heya, Sam.” When he got close, he reached out and clapped the kid on the back, wishing it were safe enough to pull away the mask and grin at him, reassure him somehow. They just didn’t have the time right now. “Much as I’d love to chat, I think we best get out of here, don’t you?”

He ignored Dean’s “What the hell is going on here?” and lifted one hand so that he could send a blast right at the ceiling, sending wood flying everywhere. Then before either Winchester could say anything, he grabbed hold of the backs of their clothes and yanked them in close until he could wrap his arms around their waits. “Clench up, boys!” and that was all the warning he gave them before they were being jerked off the ground and up into the air. The light grew behind them and JARVIS was warning him “ _We need to move, Sir. Flight capabilities are not stable. The risk of falling…”_

 _“_ We’ll stick close to the ground.” Tony cut in sharply. He did just that, keeping his arms around his cargo and trying to keep a tight grip on them so that he wouldn’t lose them. He put in as much speed as he dared, aiming for distance from the building instead of height. As they soared past trees, he felt Sam shift to try and grip at him in return, help stabilize himself a bit, and Dean made a sound that Tony was definitely going to mock him for later.

The further away they got, the more stable his suit became, until JARVIS finally told him “ _I believe we are a safe distance away, Sir._ ”

Tony snorted. “I’ll believe that when we haven’t got a bright tower of light behind us, J. Let’s kick this up a bit and get out of here.”

He didn’t stop until the tower of light was a good distance behind them. Only then did Tony finally lower them back to the ground. It was sort of amusing, in a ‘thank God we’re not dead’ sort of way, to watch the two stagger a little once they were back on the ground. Dean actually looked like he might throw up a little as he staggered and stumbled, one hand coming out to press against a tree. Tony mostly ignored him, though. He turned his focus to Sam as he held the kid to keep him steady till he found his legs once more. Sam was clutching to him still, staring at his mask with open shock, but not even that shock was enough to kill the grief in his eyes, the guilt, the self-loathing that made Tony ache to see. “Tone…”

“Hey, kid.” The mask flipped open and Tony offered Sam his best smile. “What? You think I was going to just sit back and let you do this alone?”

Sam didn’t rise to the bait. His hands clenched down on the suit and a spasm of pain flashed over his face. “I didn’t… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

There was no stopping the way that Tony softened at that broken voice. Even with Dean still nearby, watching them, Tony gently lifted a hand and cupped the side of Sam’s head. “Hey, hey. None of that. You and me, we’re fine, pipsqueak. We’re fine. And whatever that was back there, we’ll figure it out, all right?”

A shudder shook through Sam. “That was… she wasn’t breaking the seal, Tone. She _was_ the seal…”

Tony’s eyes went wide. _Oh, shit._ “So that light?”

“Was Lucifer.” Dean chimed in. He’d managed to straighten himself up from the tree and was now standing there with his head up and was glaring at them. “That was Lucifer breaking free.”

The way that Sam trembled at that had Tony curling in the arm that still held the kid’s waist. Sam was shaking like he wasn’t going to be able to stay up on his feet much longer. In fact, he was showing a lot of physical symptoms that suggested he was going into shock. “Not your fault, kiddo.” Tony told him quietly. “You didn’t know. It’s not your fault.”

“I let him out.” Sam whispered. He looked up at Tony, pupils blown wide, his eyes looking so much bigger than normal in a face gone pale, and for a brief moment he looked so _young_ as he whispered “Tony” in a voice that was like a child, begging his big brother to make things okay, to make this right. He was looking up to Tony – well, technically _down_ , considering he was a giant, but the sentiment was the same – and trusting in him to take care of this. To take care of him. What else could Tony do except draw him in close and hold him tight. “I got you, puppy. It’s all right. I’ve got you.”

Over Sam’s shoulder, he met Dean’s eyes, saw the anger and confusion there, the guilt that this man carried as well, and he knew that this was far from over. Though Dean held his tongue right now, he was going to want answers, not just from Tony but from Sam. They were going to have to give them to him, too. Lying about their friendship had stopped being a possibility the instant that Tony burst into that convent. But he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. They’d kept their friendship secret for a while now because of personal and safety reasons – those didn’t matter anymore. They didn’t matter anywhere near as much as the shaking kid that he held on to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! Just so you all know, Tony wasn't originally supposed to show up yet. But plans change. I guess it's time to see where things go now, hm?
> 
> The next story should be up soon. It's going to be another multi-chapter one, dealing with Season 5 - The Apocalypse. Thanks so much for all your reviews guys. Keep em coming! They're great motivators to keep on writing!


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